A blend of images to show the stars of the southern sky moving from east to west (left to right) over the Rocky Mountains at Bow Lake, in Banff, Alberta. The main peak at centre is Bow Peak. Crowfoot Glacier is at far left; Bow Glacier is at right below the Milky Way. A single static image shows the Milky Way and stars at the end of the motion sequence. The star trails and Milky Way reflect in the calm waters of Bow Lake this night on July 16, 2018, though they appear large and out of focus. This is a stack of 300 images for the star trails, stacked with the Ultrastreak function of Advanced Stacker Plus actions, plus a single exposure taken a minute or so after the last star trail image. The star trail stack is dropped back a lot in brightness, plus they are blurred slightly, so as to not overwhelm the fixed sky image. The sky images are blended with a stack of 8 images for the ground, mean combined to smooth noise in the ground. All are 30 seconds at f/2 with the 15mm Laowa lens and Sony a7III at ISO 3200. All were taken as part of a time-lapse sequence. Bands of airglow add the green streaks to the sky.
Bright planets Mars (reddish at left) and Jupiter (right, over Bow Glacier) over Bow Lake, in Banff, Alberta, and reflecting in the water in glitter paths on the lake. A third planet, Saturn, is also present as a modestly bright star just (!) above the ridge of Bow Peak in a notch left of centre, below the satellite. Moments later it disappeared behind the mountain. This was in deep twilight as the Milky Way was beginning to appear. I began a time-lapse shortly after this. This is a stack of 8 x 10-second exposures for the ground, mean combined to smooth noise, and one 10-second exposure for the sky, all with the Laowa 15mm lens at f/2.8 and Sony a7III at ISO 3200. This was July 16, 2018 on a perfect night at Bow Lake.
The Big Dipper over the iconic Castle Mountain in Banff National Park, Alberta, with a backdrop of a faint aurora in the northern sky. This was at 3 am on July 16, 2018, and taken from the Castle Cliffs viewpoint on the Bow Valley Parkway. The sky was also brightening with dawn twilight blue. This is a stack of 8 exposures for the ground, mean combined to smooth noise, and one exposure for the sky. All 30 seconds at f/2 with the Sigma 24mm Art lens, and Nikon D750 at ISO 3200. LENR dark frame subtraction applied in camera.
